Philosophy of Education. Paulo Freirea's Pedagogy: Bringing about Authentic Humanity

Paulo Freire`s Pedagogy: Bringing about Authentic Humanity
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Paulo Freire`s Pedagogy: Bringing about Authentic Humanity
Considered as one of the most influential educationalist of his time, Paulo Freire has expounded on the connection between education and human liberation. His book, the Pedagogy of the Oppressed is one of the most quoted book of critical education particularly in Asia, Africa and Latin America. From this first book, Freire went on to write a few more including the Pedagogy of Hope, Pedagogy of the Heart, Pedagogy of Freedom and many others. His ideas are ground breaking, particularly because it not only talks about the importance of education, but also because it illustrates how education can transform reality. Often referred to as a significant thinker of the 21st century, Freire`s ideas had tremendous impacts on both informal and formal education. Some say his methods are a resurgence of the dialectical method which was first introduced by Socrates. This paper focuses on five of Freire`s significant contributions to education and how they build upon human liberation. It is my belief that Freire`s methods were not meant for actively calling for social change, but rather, he meant it so that participants, the educator and educatee, can realize their role in the world process. When people are educated in freedom, they begin to understand their purpose, and they start to realize that the very bases for social, political and economic oppression (affluence, gender discrimination, profit taking, etc.) no longer have a purpose in the true evolution of man.
In Friere`s view, true education is designed towards the eradication of systems and institutions that prevents man from understanding his authentic humanity. Education is not a one-way process wherein only the educator who imparts his understanding of how the world works. Instead, it is a process where both the educator and educatee teaches and learns. They also have to realize that education has a greater purpose - more than developing people who will be able to complete in the highly industrialized world - but rather, it is to advance civilization in ways only a society, which recognizes that each individual has knowledge to share, can do. How can people be connected so that -collectively- they act more intelligently than any individuals and group has ever done before? This is a question many organizations, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is hoping to answer. While new communication technologies such as the Internet has enabled people to collaborate on global projects for socially relevant issues like poverty and climate change, the problem persists because they are already embedded in culture and tradition. The only way for man to gain true freedom is to understand evolution and his place in it. He has to truly understand what it means to be human, and it all boils down to what his belief systems are. Hence, from this discussion, we can already see the importance of education, from early childhood to adulthood because school and universities share with families the great burden of socializing citizens. If children are socialized in an oppressive culture, then they grow up and become the oppressor or the oppressed. If they are socialized in a system which allows free thinking and meaningful practice, then they grow up to become confident and socially responsible beings. This is where Freire comes in.
Friere has five significant contributions to the rethinking of education: the emphasis on dialogue, praxis, the creation of a pedagogy of the oppressed, situation of learning activities in the lived experience of the students and the use of Christian sources as metaphors for teaching ADDIN Mendeley Citation{2009c4f1-5076-4060-b268-6a2e5dbfdf1a} CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "URL" : "/thinkers/et-freir.htm", "accessed" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2011", "11", "8" ] ] }, "author" : [ { "family" : "Smith", "given" : "Mark K." } ], "container-title" : "The Encyclopedia of Informal Education", "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2002" ] ] }, "title" : "Paulo Freire and informal education", "type" : "webpage" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=2009c4f1-5076-4060-b268-6a2e5dbfdf1a" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Smith, 2002)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" } (Smith, 2002).
For Freire, dialogue is an important part of education because it is able to bring new ideas to the discussion and both the educators and educatee are able to learn from the experience. During his time, informal education used dialogical methods rather than curricula-based learning, but Freire asserted that the conversational approach can also be used in formal education. For him, dialogue involves respect, love, faith, trust hope and critical thinking. " I f I do not love the world--if I do not love life--if I do not love people…I cannot enter into dialogue" ADDIN Mendeley Citation{73b008d3-6812-4f57-bc2d-b32f49fd2a53} CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "author" : [ { "family" : "Freire", "given" : "Paulo" } ], "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2000" ] ] }, "publisher" : "Continuum International Publishing Group", "publisher-place" : "New York", "title" : "Pedagogy of the Oppressed", "type" : "book" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=73b008d3-6812-4f57-bc2d-b32f49fd2a53" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "manualFormatting" : "(Freire, 2000, pp.71-74)", "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Freire, 2000)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" } (Freire, 2000, pp.71-74). Inherent in this approach is that people are working with each other instead of one person acting on another. The lecture approach so common in our universities is one form of oppression because it does not allow students to voice out their opinions. Most students are unable to explore their own ideas, and in effect, are left boxed in to the opinions presented to them by their teachers. This approach can lead to over education, one which "involves banking - the educator making deposits to the educatee" ADDIN Mendeley Citation{2009c4f1-5076-4060-b268-6a2e5dbfdf1a} CSL_CITATION { "citationItems" : [ { "id" : "ITEM-1", "itemData" : { "URL" : "/thinkers/et-freir.htm", "accessed" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2011", "11", "8" ] ] }, "author" : [ { "family" : "Smith", "given" : "Mark K." } ], "container-title" : "The Encyclopedia of Informal Education", "id" : "ITEM-1", "issued" : { "date-parts" : [ [ "2002" ] ] }, "title" : "Paulo Freire and informal education", "type" : "webpage" }, "uris" : [ "/documents/?uuid=2009c4f1-5076-4060-b268-6a2e5dbfdf1a" ] } ], "mendeley" : { "previouslyFormattedCitation" : "(Smith, 2002)" }, "properties" : { "noteIndex" : 0 }, "schema" : "https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json" } (Smith, 2002).
Freire`s second contribution is connected with praxis or a type of action that is informed and affected by a person`s values. In conn...